Review of Red Hook Summer (2012) by Yolanda B — 30 Aug 2012

A misguided film from Spike Lee, the first film of his that I didn't like, it does have one good thing, and thats the lead performance of clarke peters as the bishop, hes the only good actor here and he gives an almost oscar worthy performance, the rest cannot be said about the rest of the cast, you can tell they were unknowns cuz they CANNOT act, the lead kid was sooooooooooooo annoying I couldnt fucking stand him, the girl and deacon werent that much better either, another thing, spike lee shows up as Mookie,, BUT HE DOESNT DO ANYTHING, he literally just walks by twice and says like 4 words, what was the point, if youre gonna feature an iconic character like that, then at least give him something to do, or just dont include him at all then, theres no point and it just distracts from the film, and another thing, idk if anyone has read any of the reviews of this, but theres a major plot development that completely changes the film like 3/4 of the way through, while this could have been handled well in a different film, its so poorly used here, it completely changes the tone of the film and also completely undermines everything the film had been trying to say, ive no idea why spike included it, its got some church music I guess, but overall a very frustrating film that couldve been way better.